The ToolBox
by MagicWarriorDragon
Summary: When two glowing items appear in front of Harry in the middle of the night while he is inside of his Cupboard at the Dursley's, he doesn't know what to think. When he discovers six pokeballs with amazing creatures inside, he just may have found his new family. Pre-Hogwarts, One-Shot. No Pairings. Mentions of Abusive Dursley's. T rating just to be sure.


**AN: I really shouldn't have written this when I haven't written the next chapter of my other story yet. But Have you met my Plunnies? (Plot ideas + Bunnies) They are not normal. They are actually plot idea Kangaroo's. With Giant Mallets. I call them my Plangaroo's. They follow me around wacking me in the head with the plot mallet until I write it down. And so, Enjoy!**

Harry sniffed, rubbing his arm and hugging himself while sitting in his cupboard after a particularly hard beating from his Uncle. He wasn't crying, no, crying was not allowed. The arm he was rubbing wasn't the most injured part of his body (and his Uncle made an effort not to hit him anywhere that couldn't be easily covered by his much too large hand-me-down clothes that used to belong to his whale-like cousin before he got even fatter and out-grew them) but he chose to rub it anyway.

Today was his eighth birthday. It was celebrated by being paid no good attention from anyone (as usual), is cousin getting showered with attention and anything else he wanted, and of course, the beating that led to his current situation. When the small area of space at the end of his cupboard that was not taken up by his form started glowing softly, well, he didn't notice for a good few minutes.

By the time he noticed the glow, it had intensified so that it was almost hard to look at. The light was slowly condensing into different shapes. One condensed into what amounted to a small rectangle. A box-like shape condensed next to it, taking up almost all of the room in the tiny foot space of the cupboard. They gained color and detail. Harry scooted backwards so that his back was flat against the wall. The move only got him a few more inches away from the now softly glowing objects, but it was something.

He didn't know how long he sat there. It was later in the night that the objects had stopped glowing and he had gathered enough courage to investigate. With one last rub to a sore spot on his body to attempt to alleviate the pain, he reached for the now non-glowing rectangle shape. It was red, with a circle jutting out of the side. It had slots on the side of it that looked like they could slide out. He flipped it open.

He could tell it had a screen on the bottom and top of the device. He recognized the design as something akin to a handheld gaming device like the ones his cousin had. The thought almost made him drop the device. If this was his cousin's, his relatives (he would never call them family) would (hopefully figuratively) kill him for "stealing" from Dudley.

If it was his cousins, it would be even worse for him if he had dropped and damaged the device. Before he could put any more though into it, the device in his hand beeped and it started quietly speaking, "Hello, I am Dexter, your personal computer and pokedex for all things pokemon! Please enter your name and some information about yourself so I can better assist you." The screen beeped once and a series of questions came up, starting with his name. Harry froze. If this was Dudley's, and they found out he had it because he put in his name, we wouldn't be getting any food for a long while.

Harry decided on putting in a fake name. But what name would be perfect? He refused to pick a stupid one like, "HP123" as a name, even if he was just inputting it in a weird computer game. That had appeared in his "room" in a flash of light. He was going to continue to ignore that last part. He tried, but he just couldn't find a name that he liked.

He settled on changing his last name to, "Griffin" and leaving his first name the same. The Dursley's were not the sharpest tools in the shed, if they were even in it in the first place, but they would be able to figure out that Harry Potter and Harry Griffin where the same person. He apologized to his future self if he got caught and in trouble for this, but he just couldn't find a first name that he liked.

The name Harry was given to him by his parents. They were special to Harry, even if, according to the Dursley's, they were drunks that died in a drunken car crash, giving him his scar. The rest of the questions were fairly normal, but he did find some of them odd. "Do you exercise regularly, and if so, in what way? Do you want more friends that however many you have now? On a scale of one to ten, how responsible to you find yourself." Harry answered the questions, glad to have something to distract him from the throbbing pain of his bruise-covered body.

When the questions were all answered, he put the device down. "Curiosity killed the cat," he thought to himself morbidly, "But satisfaction brought it back." He couldn't take not knowing what was in the tool-box like structure next to him. He was still insanely curious about the little hand-held device next to him, but he really did want to know what was in the box.

He picked it up and put it in his lap, finding it surprisingly light. A clasp was on the front, and he flicked it open. Inside was a collection of red and white spheres. He gave the brushes and cans (of what looked like pet food) odd looks. He was completely puzzled by everything in the box. A bunch of different colored rocks and a strip of cloth with magnets on it, and another stone set in the center of a black bracelet.

Finding to answers to the objects in the box, he turned back to "Dexter." He reopened the device and his hands accidently hit a small button its side. Words scrolled across the screen and a progress bar appeared. "Connecting to local internet and downloading information."

Harry loosened his grip on the device and waited for the download to be complete. It took a while, and when it finished he looked at the separate options that appeared on the screen. The first one was labeled "pokedex" and when he clicked it, a list popped up, but a second later a tab opened over and with the words "General Pokemon Information" in larger letters at the top.

Harry's eyes widened as he learned about the fantasy creatures and people. He learned about trainers and battles and types. He wished he was in this world. It sounded like a place he would want to live. The pokeballs in the game looked exactly like the ones the box. His eyes widened. It wasn't possible. These were fictional creatures in a video game. They could not possibly exist. He did not have them sitting a few inches away from him. He decided to test it, just to see. He randomly grabbed one of the six pokeballs from the box and silently crept out of his cupboard.

He froze, expecting his relatives to come thundering down the stairs to scream at him for being out of his cupboard without permission. The device, now known to be called a pokedex in the game's world, said when the pokemon inside a pokeball is released, they come out with a flash of white light and when they are put back in, a flash of red light. Not at all perfect for being quiet and inconspicuous. He snuck out the back door. The moon wasn't super high in the sky just yet, still plenty of time before morning. He knew a forest was nearby so he ran in the general direction he thought it was. He made sure to remember what way he came from, not wanting to get lost.

He got a lot of practice running from his Cousin Dudley and his gang, who always wanted to beat him up. He was there shortly and he stopped when he knew one would be able to see the flash of light that might come from the "pokeball."

He sucked in a breath. The inside of this sphere could have a mystical creature with amazing powers and as smart as a human! Or, it could be empty. Or, it could be filled with wood or metal or whatever with thing was made of. He pressed the button in the middle and held it out in front of him. It opened and a white beam shot out. Harry's eyes widened in surprise. The beam hit the ground and started forming a shape.

Harry held his breath. Was this really happening? Was this the moment he met his first friend? The light cleared, revealing bright orange and black striped coat in the shape of a puppy or small dog. It barked and looked at its surroundings curiously before its eyes fell on Harry's small form. Harry had frozen in shock. The creatures were real. The very thought of it was ridiculous. But proof was right in front of him, living and breathing and moving proof.

Growlithe was confused. He knew he was going to a special new master that was young and that he was going to meet him today. He was so excited; he had barely paid attention to any of the other details about his master. He noticed he was in a forest and bark excitedly. His master was in front of him! He walked forward to greet him and memorize his scent. He stopped, confused, when his master just stood there staring at him. He barked again. Wait, did his master smell injured? He growled. Who would dare hurt his master!

Harry snapped out of his state of frozen confusion when he heard the puppy-like creature in front of him growl. Was it going to attack him? He whimpered and curled in on himself from habit, used to being beat up.

Growlithe stopped again. Was he scaring master? He didn't mean to. He starting licking his master's face trying to tell he sorry and that he didn't mean to scare master. He whined and nudged him, wondering if he broke his little master before they even properly met. His eyes filled with tears and he howled to the sky in sorrow. He curled up next to his master, hoping that his master would still want him.

Harry heard and felt all the actions of the 'pokemon' next to him. Maybe it wasn't going to hurt him! It did sound like it was very upset. He uncurled slightly. It had curled up next to him after finally stopping its whimpering. He looked at it. It was pretty cute, and he slowly reached out a hand towards it and gently, carefully, stroked its back. He smiled. It was the first time he had genuinely smiled in a long time.

"You're not so bad, are you, little guy?" he whispered. Growlithe stirred, waking up from his curled position with a yawn. Harry stroked his head again. "Hello. My name is Harry." he softly spoke. Growlithe yipped in happiness. His master wasn't scared of him anymore! They could be friends now! Harry now realized that he should have brought the pokedex with him so he could identify what type of pokemon this is.

He grew more comfortable with the furry creature in front of him by the second. He laughed and smiled. The moon was now high up in the sky, so Harry assumed it was around midnight. "I got to head back to by relative's house now. I can't let anyone see you just yet, so you have to go back in your pokeball for a little while. I hope that's okay with you." He was reluctant to put the pokemon in the pokeball if it didn't want to go.

Growlithe easily complied with being put back into its pokeball, having no problems being inside it. He dissolved into red light and the pokeball closed with a soft click. Harry walked back to the Dursley's house. He would never call the place home. He snuck into the house through the back door, double checking that he locked it behind him. He stepped back into his tiny cupboard. He almost sighed at being back in the small, cramped space after being in the open space of the forest for so long.

When Harry was comfortably settled (as comfortably as being in a cupboard will allow), he stared at the other five pokeballs in awe. He had five other pokemon left to meet! First, he had to find out what type of pokemon he had just met. He found the scan setting and scanned the pokeball that he knew contained the one he had just met.

It was a Growlithe, the puppy pokemon. It was a fire type that was extremely loyal to its trainer. This particular one was male and had the flash fire ability, along with knowing the moves Bite, and Agility. He Harry smiled. This was unreal. But it was happening. He was smart enough to have figured out that everything that had happened to him was not, in fact, a dream. He never could have made all this stuff up on his own, anyway.

He spent the rest of that night reading anything and everything about pokemon on the pokedex. He didn't get a wink of sleep, and paid for it in the morning. When the pound on his door, accompanied by the screeching of his aunt for him to wake up and make them breakfast or else. He hid the pokedex under his bed and pushed the box to the side so it couldn't be seen by a casual glance into his cupboard.

Another screech came from outside of his cupboard. He had to get up and make the Dursley's breakfast then go to school. He made a huge breakfast, resigned at the fact that he would be allowed to eat none of it. He left before his cousin could catch up to him and add a bruise or two to his collection and made for the public library instead of school. The library did two things for him. One, he learned things without the extra heaping of bias is very opinionated teachers threw in, and Two, he could avoid is Cousin for the majority of the day.

He read for the rest of the day, until he was sure that his cousin was busy doing something else. He left the library and headed back to his cupboard to grab his pokedex and his box of materials. After successfully sneaking out of the house with the two items from years of practice avoiding the Dursley's, he was back in the forest.

He checked the pokedex for the most efficient way of opening multiple pokeballs, and found that throwing them in the air will open them all in front of him. He follows the instructions and six white beams shot out from the red and white pokeballs as they suspended themselves in the air for a second. The pokeballs returned to his hand and he put them back in the box. The lights had fully condensed.

He recognized Growlithe immediately, who was running in circles barking excitedly. The other five were a variety of different colors. A green and brown one, a white and blue one, a yellow and blue one, a primarily blue one, and a black, white and red one named their primary colors. They all reacted to being released for the first time much the same way Growlithe had. They looked around at their surroundings before their eyes settled on Harry. They all had happy looks on their faces.

Harry stared, amazed, at the new creatures in front of him. Wordlessly, he held up the pokedex and scanned each one. Electrike, male with the Lightning rod ability, Absol, female with the Super luck ability, Skiddo, male with Grass pelt ability, Starly, female with the Keen eye ability, and Eevee, female with the adaptability ability.

Growlithe was barking at them, and their ears lowered. So, instead of running forward and practically trampling him, they walked forward slowly and non-threateningly so they wouldn't scare him. He crouched down to greet the much shorter creatures, though some by only a few feet. Starly was hovering in the air, so it flew down and landed lightly in front of him. Absol, Electrike, and Eevee sniffed his outstretched hand to memorize his scent while Skiddo ran around him in little circles.

"Hello. My- I mean, my name's Harry. I can't- I just-how are you real. How are you here? How can you exist? It's just- it's a pleasure to meet you all." Harry stuttered out. They made various noises, all presumably trying to talk to him and explain a little bit. Harry slowly moved the hand that was being sniffed to the top of Eevee's head and gently patted it. Eevee made a happy little sound of contentment – it was something between a purr and a small little yip – and leaned into his touch. Soon, all of the pokemon were clamoring to be petted and Harry was happy to hug and pet all of them. He was smiling and giving true laughs of mirth and happiness for the second time, it felt really, really good.

Harry almost didn't want to moment to end. He didn't know how this had happen or why it was happening to him of all people, but he wasn't going to argue. He was surrounded by (covered by would be a better description) friends and he was happy. Harry freed his arm from the Pokémon's paws and took out the pokedex, reading a little more into these particular pokemon. It kept mentioning that pokemon could do different moves. He scanned his –his! - Pokemon again, this time noticing that the scan also told him what moves they knew.

He called out to the one on his right hand. "Electrike, it says here you know the move Tackle. Can you demonstrate? I'm not sure what this thing means by moves, anyway…" Electrike jumped to his feet with a happy yip gathered energy around him before charging a small rock as Harry watched. With the innocent expression on Electrike's face as he watched Harry's reaction go from confused to awed. Growlithe, Eevee and Absol jumped forward and stood down next to Electrike before showing off their Tackle attacks in the same way.

Harry's smile only grew as Starly swooped down with a Tackle attack of her own. Skiddo joined in the fun enthusiastically by charging at another rock. The clearing was now a lot more clear of rocks than it was before they had showed up, that's for sure.

Harry complemented them. "That's amazing! So it's my job to help you guys learn new moves that you could never learn in the wild? That's really cool! That is, if you will all take me as your trainer?" Harry had been told he was useless, stupid, a worthless freak, his entire life.

He didn't expect these amazing creatures to like him either, let alone let him help them become stronger. That's why he extremely surprised when they all frantically nodded their heads as a "Yes" gesture. Some of them rubbed their heads against his side in a hugging gesture.

His eyes filled with tears at the loving gesture. It didn't cause him pain or hurt him, and he liked the feeling. He didn't know if he had ever been hugged before. He didn't have any friends. His relatives only hurt him. His teachers only degraded him more, though not as bad as his relatives did.

He broke down and cried. His pokemon were confused, but they did their best to comfort him anyway. He cried until he ran out of tears. He then, brokenly, told them the story of his life. They listened and their eyes glistened with tears by the end of it. They hugged him and murmured reassurances (Even though he couldn't understand them, the soft tone of voice and kind eyes got the message across).

Harry got up. His relatives wouldn't have noticed that he hadn't come home that night, because he knew they were going to some fancy dinner party for Vernon's job. He would just need to be back by morning to make them breakfast. And clean the house. And maybe get beaten up by his Uncle or his Cousin or both.

Harry casted aside his past and made a self-commitment. He would always care for his friends. He would always be there for them. He may not have realized it, but that was the moment his pokemon became extremely protective of him. They all shared hard looks and vowed that no-one would ever hurt their Harry again.

He was a new character to all of them. But every single one of them loved him as if they had known him for years. Harry addressed all of them, "Why don't we train a little tonight? It would be a good way to get to know one another. Growlithe, work on your Ember attack, see if you can improve it in any way. Electrike, try to charge electrical energy by running around, that also works on your speed and agility. Starly, let me tie a few rocks to your wings to strengthen them as you fly. Fly around until you forget you have them on and then I'll change them to slightly heavier ones, and then repeat. Skiddo, you little goat, can work on your speed and defense by dodging or destroying the sticks I throw your way. It shouldn't hurt too much, but if you get hit by one, try and continue, okay? Eevee and Absol, I want you two to spar together so I can try and figure out pokemon battles, as well as increase your own skills."

The pokemon cheered and got to work. Harry starting throwing sticks at Skiddo, who grew more confidant even as Harry threw more and more sticks at him. He got hit a few times but shook it off, ignoring for the purpose of dodging the next stick. As Harry threw the sticks, he kept a close eye on the battling Eevee and Absol. They were trading Tackle attacks, with the odd imperfect Scratch attack from Eevee and a clumsy attempt at a Slash attack from Absol. He was awed that both were taking such abuse from the other and still getting up, looking as happy and ready to fight as ever. They soon tired, though, and eventually stopped.

Harry called a rest. He had all of them follow him to a nearby stream and he untied the rocks from Starly's wings. She was tired, but happy that her wings were growing stronger. The pokemon drank from the stream and Harry noticed that it was almost morning again. He had stayed up for the past three nights, with almost no sleep, and it was all catching up to him. No rest for the weary, as the saying goes.

He sadly returned his pokemon for the night (though not before noticing the death glare they shot him at the thought of him returning to his relatives). He would be in a lot of trouble if he didn't return anyway.

Over the next few weeks, Harry followed the routine of: Wake up. Serve the Dursleys all day. Play and train with pokemon all night. Sneak back 'home.' Sleep for an hour or two on the weekends. On the weekdays, he could only play with his pokemon every other night, being much too tired from reading all day (he flat out refused to not learn anything at all) and serving the Dursleys. His pokemon almost broke out of their pokeballs and murdered the Dursleys the first time they beat him for (barely) burning the bacon.

Harry was thankful that he had put the pokeballs into the tool box that they came in, so they couldn't escape their pokeballs at that moment. When he had the rare moment of spare time, he planned out in his pokedex all of the moves he would have his pokemon learn. They didn't have a move limit in a usual way. A pokemon can only learn specific moves for their type, and different moves have different levels of difficulty to learn. Each move took a lot of training and practice before it became mastered. A thunderbolt will start out as a little spark of useless energy unless it's focused and charged the correct amount, and so on. He planned on helping his friends learn about six attacks each.

They would only learn some moves after they evolved, so he was going to teach them the lower level of that attack to speed the process up after they evolve. Starly can learn Fury attack, but its more advanced form, Close Combat, was impossible to learn until it evolved. Fury attack would be great practice for Starly so it's easier to learn the harder move in the long run.

He planned on having Electrike learn Thunderbolt, Thunder Fang, Rest, Charge, Howl, Bite, and once it evolves, Electric Terrain. It was a good move set of long range attacks and attacks for when the target gets too close. He planned on having is energetic little Growlithe learn Odor Sleuth (to complement his amazing nose and smell memory), Fire Fang, Flamethrower, Dig, Bite, and Agility as a prelude to the move Extreme Speed.

He planned on having his Absol learn Ice Beam, Razor Wind, Detect, Night Slash, Bite, and Iron tail. Starly's move set was harder to decide on because he wanted an almost even amount of long and short range attacks. He selected Steelwing, Roost, Sand Attack, Echoed Voice, and Fury attack as a precursor to Close Combat. Eevee was especially tricky. He ended of showing her all the different types of pokemon she could evolve into and letting her pick. Each type was so varied he couldn't pick moves for her until he knew. She had to think about it for a week or two.

Eevee eventually decided on Vaporeon as her future evolution. She had such a laid back, go with the flow personality that Harry thought that the new form would fit her quite nicely. Her move set would eventually include Acid Armor, Heal Bell, Bite, a water gun that would eventually turn into Hydro Pump, and an Aqua tail that would evolve into a stronger Iron Tail. He would work on moves like Scratch and Bite while she was still an Eevee. His main focus with her would be getting her defense, speed, health, and attack up.

He would have Skiddo, his happy goat, learn Razor Leaf, Synthesis, Iron Tail, Protect, Energy Ball, and eventually Vine Whip when he evolves. Harry was happy with the way his life was going. He planned on leaving number four Pivet Drive when Skiddo evolves into Gogoat. He was going to ride away and never come back. He smiled at the thought. He didn't tell his pokemon that. Skiddo, the poor dear, would have worked himself to exhaustion trying to evolve to get Harry out of his relative's house.

That was the day, on Harry's eighth birthday, that his life improved. He started working out along with his pokemon, feeling bad about them working while he just watched. They all grew exponentially, mentally and physically. He gave Eevee her Waterstone (The evolution stones had all come inside the toolbox) and Growlithe his Firestone when he thought they had reached their fullest potential in their current forms, a few years after he had met them.

He left on Gogoat when he evolved; keeping that goal in mind as he potentially helped all his friends grow stronger. Flying on Staraptor's back was the best feeling ever, in his mind. They flew around for a long while. All of his pokemon loved him, and he loved them. That's all that mattered, in his mind and theirs.

 **AN: Finite! It took me five days of work (And by that I mean I got home from school and worked on it until I went to bed for Five days..) to write the whole thing. I don't think I'm going to write anymore for this story so it'll just be a Oneshot. I may add the occasional chapter with a one-shot in the same universe (Like a bit of what its like for him at Hogwarts with his pokemon?)**

 **I think the quality of writing is much better than in my other story. This was originally written (Not just because of the Plangaroo's) because I was being too nice to my characters. I am getting better at actually having them get injured and giving them emotional reactions that are realistic. I'm still learning!**

 **I would love some feedback in the form of reviews so I know how I did! Thanks for reading this 4,621 word story, I put a lot of work into it!**


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